


Seven

by ldyvanillacourt



Category: It Lives in the Woods (Visual Novel)
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Heavy Angst, Spoilers, and mc (devon with female pronouns) sacrifices herself, i mean it’s canon if you get a certain ending, it’s the ending where everyone dies except noah, like this is completely noah-centric, not necessarily pro or anti noah just exploring his mindset, this takes place in chapter 16 and it’s basically the scene with noah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 20:38:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16103372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ldyvanillacourt/pseuds/ldyvanillacourt
Summary: He sits alone. Thinking. Thinking far too much. He taps his finger on the table. Sighs. Stares into his coffee, an abyss. One year ago today, seven lives were lost. And he has the blood of all seven on his hands.





	Seven

This is the third time he’s been here this week. He hopes it doesn’t look suspicious.

The coffee shop is quiet. Vacant. There’s one waitress and two other people. They sit together. Talking. Laughing. He sits alone. Thinking. Thinking far too much. He taps his finger on the table. Sighs. Stares into his coffee, an abyss. One year ago today, seven lives were lost. And he has the blood of all seven on his hands.

The waitress is behind the counter. She walks over to the other table. She talks with them. Laughs with them. He hasn’t laughed like that in a long time.

 _Seven. Innocent. Lives._ Jane took seven lives. He took seven lives. Seven innocent people. Dead. And he had the audacity to call them his friends.

None of them deserved what they got. None of them. Yet he’s here. Living. Breathing. Thinking. Running away from that town. He’s the only one. He shouldn’t be the only one.

He’s haunted with memories of those people.

Ava. She was the first to go. Mangled. Disfigured. Like she would have done to Jocelyn if she was given the chance. She was tough as nails. Never let anyone take advantage of her. Until he came along, that is. Until Jane got to her.

The waitress is back behind the counter. He thinks she sees him. He stares into his drink again.

Andy. King Kang. He was braver than Noah could ever imagine. He never let anything get in his way. His bullshit basketball team only made him more determined. Until he was killed of course. Until that victory was halted.

Now he knows the waitress sees him. Looking at him. Interrogating him. He knows she recognizes him. He’s been here three times.

_She knows me. Of course she does. She’s gonna call the police and I’m gonna end up in prison for the rest of my life._

He glances at her. He sees a small smile on her face.

Dan. He didn’t reconnect with Dan (it’s too late now anyway). He was dealing with so much shit. Trauma. In a coma for the last week of his life. He would have gotten the chance to overcome it, or at least partly. Would have. If he wasn’t fucking killed.

_I had to do it. I had to kill them. I had to sacrifice them. It was the only way._

He rubs his temples.

_It’s what Jane wanted. If she hadn’t gotten to them then she would’ve gotten to more people, maybe all of Westchester. I had to do it. What’s seven lives—technically six—compared to who knows how many more?_

This is a horrible thought.

_You’re a fucking psychopath, Noah! You know that?!_

He knows that all too well.

He glances at the waitress again. She’s at the coffee maker. He has a feeling she’s going to come over to him.

Lily. She was braver than she knew. She loved a girl who bullied her, came around, and betrayed her again. She might have forgiven her. She could’ve had a happy life. If, you know. Noah hadn’t gotten to her.

He sees the waitress. She has a coffee pot with her and a smile on her face. He doesn’t look her in the eye.

“Refresh your coffee?” she asks. He could use that right now.

“Oh,” he says, his voice barely above a whisper. “Sure. Thanks.”

She begins to pour the coffee. His hands rest of his lap. Tapping at his knees. Shaking. He should leave. _I should leave._ He considers leaving.

“Jane.”

_Jane?!_

“What did you say?!”

His full body is shaking now. His heart is pounding at the mention of his sister’s name. His head is spinning. His foot is tapping. He wants to leave. The waitress doesn’t notice any of it.

She puts the coffee pot down and grins at him. “Jane. It’s my name? I just figured we ought to get to know each other, considering this is the third time I’ve seen you this week.”

_Oh. Right._

He calms down.

“Sure. Okay.”

_What did you think she was talking about, Noah?_

“Aaaaand this is the part where you tell me your name?” She smiles. She’s always smiling.

“Oh. Yeah. My name is... Malcolm. It’s Malcolm.” _You dirty liar._

“Nice to meet you, Malcolm.” She slips into the booth with him. Across from him. She does this with happiness on her face. She wouldn’t be if she knew everything. But she doesn’t have to know everything.

Everything she does, she does while smiling. She reminded him of someone he-

Lucas. Of course. He was always smiling. Always looked professional. But he had darknesses that he had to hide from everyone as class president, Noah knew it. Ones he could beat completely. He was smart enough to go to any school he wanted to. He would have gone to college. If he hadn’t been killed.

“So,” Jane says, gaining Noah’s attention, “where you from?”

He looks down at his coffee and then back to her. “Around here.”

“Really? I would have bet a million dollars you were from out of town.” This is the first time her smile left her face.

“Nope, sorry.” Soon he’ll be out of town though. He can’t stay here forever. He needs to leave. To run away. To forget.

“What high school did you go to?” she asks.

“Um. George. George Washington?”

“No kidding!” She smiles again. “I had a cousin who went to GW. You don’t know a Brad, do you?”

“No...?”

“Well, lucky for you. He’s a jerk. You seem like a nice enough guy.”

A nice enough guy to kill seven people.

Who was sixth?

Stacy. Of course. She was sixth. She was the angriest out of everyone that day. She had a right to be. She had to deal with Britney, of all people, and her petty blackmail. He still remembers the video of her, blaring through the loudspeaker. She would have had a normal life. If his sister hadn’t snapped her neck.

He takes a sip of his coffee.

“So, what brings you into this dump so often?” Jane asks.

He thinks about what to say. “I like being around people.”

“Yeah, I thought so,” she jokes. “You seem like the chatty type.”

They share a laugh. He hasn’t laughed in forever. It feels nice. Like a weight off his shoulders. He wishes he could laugh like that every day.

“So, hey, can I ask you something?” she asks him.

“Sure.”

“Well, I’m just wondering, as often as I see you in here...” she glances at the other booth with the two people. Together. “... how come you’re always alone?”

He’s always been alone. This isn’t anything new.

He doesn’t answer. He only chokes on his breath. He looks from her, to his coffee, to the table, to-

The bell rings.

The bell at the door, announcing new customers.

Jane turns in her seat to yell, “Be right with you!” She turns back to him. Grinning. Rolling her eyes. Standing.

“Well, it was nice talking to you, Malcolm. We should do it again sometime.”

He nods. He’s lost in thought again. His mind in on the last person to die.

Devon.

Devon sacrificed herself to take Jane’s place. She willingly died instead of him. She was always there for the group even in the minute of her death.

She’s still there. Her spirit is still there, in the form of a monster. In the woods. He knows she’s still there. He ran away from her. Away from the woods. Away from that town. She’s still there. Lurking. Waiting. Knowing. She knows everything. He set her up to be another group of naïve children’s worst nightmare. And she sacrificed herself. She didn’t deserve any of it.

He looks at Jane. She’s talking to the customers.

The first thing he notices about them is their badges.

_Shit._

He doesn’t have time to finish his coffee. He stands, heading for the back door. He throws a tip onto the table for Jane. And he runs.

And runs.

And runs.

And runs.

And he doesn’t stop running for a long, long time.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter/insta/tumblr: ldyvanillacourt  
> if u wanna follow my insta where i posted one picture of uraraka ochako: ochakhoe420


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